


And I'll Tell You When It's Over, I'll Tell You When You Can Leave

by herdivineshadow



Category: Robin Hood (BBC 2006)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-10
Updated: 2012-04-10
Packaged: 2017-11-03 09:21:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/379817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/herdivineshadow/pseuds/herdivineshadow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The wedding proceeds without incident. Guy and Marian are married.</p><p>This is what happens after.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And I'll Tell You When It's Over, I'll Tell You When You Can Leave

**Author's Note:**

> AU for after 1x13 "A Clue: No" - Much doesn't interrupted the wedding ceremony and Marian doesn't punch Guy in the face.
> 
> Title from "Blood Loss" by The Horrible Crowes

The wedding proceeds in the manner usual to this sort of thing and if the groom is a little stiff or awkward, it is put down to either his new coat or that he is so used to being surly or wound into fierce tension, he does not know how to smile, relax and celebrate.

That the bride is not a bubbling font of smiles and laughter, but more a serious double of her new husband, is not a surprise. It is not a surprise for most brides of her status.

It is only Lady Marian's age that marks her out as an unusual bride.

 

\--

 

The first weeks and months of their marriage are stifling to Marian. Guy spends what seems to be yet ever more hours of the day at Locksley with her. At home, she supposed, in the place that she had thought would be her home with another.

Once.

He has started to bring his paperwork here to deal with, rather than going to the castle. He accompanies her to the market, quietly hovering a few feet behind her. If she decides to ride through the forest or visit a sick villager, inevitably he will go with her.

(She has taken to visiting the sick rather less, since he seems to be incapable of not looking threatening and fear does not encourage recovery.)

There are times when she swears she can feel when he is watching her - though when she turns to face him, Guy always seems to be occupied with something.

Robin's absence is felt keenly. She sees the others - Much, Djaq, Will and Allan - in the market or hiding behind well placed homes in Locksley and the surrounding villages sometimes, but always too far away to talk to. She doesn't see John either, but presumes that he does not want to risk being seen more often than Robin's schemes already force him to.

Guy's watchful eye, or maybe even just his presence, keeps them away.

She does not blame them.

It is Robin that she is surprised at. He had always found a way to talk to her before, scaling the walls of Knighton Hall to see her. Guy has never stopped him before.

It is the guilty looks from the rest of his gang, that suggest other reasons. Perhaps he is angry that she went through with it, though it had turned out afterwards that King Richard had not returned at all.

(The blazing row that follows that particular revelation tapers into days of angry, silent glaring on her part and stumbling apologies on his. In the end, her father does confirm that he had come to see her while she was laid up in bed before the ceremony and an uneasy truce is reached.)

Perhaps he has turned away from her, as he once did before, to fight for King and country.

Still.

She feels his absence.

 

\--

 

Marian wonders, sometimes, if Guy watches her so closely because he thinks she will leave him.

Or that he is dreaming that he married her, and that he will blink and wake and she will be gone.

 

\--

 

The Nightwatchman has been absent these long weeks too. It is a miracle that Guy has not discovered the scars that litter her body, but maybe it is his fear that she will leave that makes him so careful and tentative when he joins her at night.

It is not a secret that can be kept forever though. As each day passes, Guy grows ever surer that she will still be there when he returns from the castle or wakes up in the morning and Marian finds that this is better than she might have expected.

It is less stifling for one, now that Guy does not worry so much that he will return to an empty house and seems to watch her less. He still brings his paperwork to Locksley, but now he looks almost happy to be doing it here. At home.

Perhaps Marian has grown accustomed to his habits and presence too. It is easier to breathe in the house with him there and with her no longer expecting a slighter, fairer man in his place.

Yet the overarching feeling of breath being held remains, though the uneasy cloud that hovered over the beginning of their marriage has dissipated somewhat.

 

\--

 

It is Guy kissing her in the stables that finally forces her hand. It has become apparent that marriage suits Guy (much to the Sheriff's disgust) and he is far more even-tempered and relaxed than he ever was before. It suits him so well, that he is starting to become bold with his affection for her.

To Marian's surprise, she has become more fond of him than she thought she could be. It is this that is the problem.

When he discovers the scars he gave her (for he will discover them at this rate and there is no if about it), he will not recover from it. They will not recover from it.

It is this that concerns her.

It is not the rumours that Robin has returned to the Holy Land. She is glad to hear of it - there will no longer be any unknown reason for his silence and he will surely be of use to the King.

No.

It is that this tenuous and fragile thing that binds Guy and her together will be torn apart. While she would certainly survive the breaking (barring, of course, any prolonged physical fighting now that she has been out of practice), Marian suspects that her husband would not recover.

Far better that he not discover anything on his own.

 

\--

 

It is only after she says that she needs to talk to him, that she realises that he might think her with child. She can see the hope for it in his eyes.

It is a hope that she wishes she could confirm, rather than telling him the truth.

 

\--

 

It is the truth that sends him backing out of their bedroom door, down the stairs and outside - where she can hear him being violently sick.

He doesn't return to their bed that night. Nor the next.

It is when he has been absent from Locksley for five days that she snaps and goes to look for him in Nottingham.

 

\--

That he's pale and tired is no surprise. That he can't look at her is.

After pushing and pushing and pushing, he gives in and rages alternately that she lied to him and that he could have killed her.

And when his rage is spent, there's "you've always known how I feel about how he treats the people of Nottingham" and "but you didn't" and "I'm still your wife".

It's the last that gets his attention.

It's the tender glare (if a glare could be tender) and the "and you're still my husband" that confuses him and makes him unsure.

Her hand in his makes him certain, or at least, she thinks it must because his arms are wrapped around her tightly and her feet no longer quite touch the floor.


End file.
